Homeschooling

Tennie forwarded this to me.

Nordic Skiing, Valentines, and More

My poor kids.  We're just not doing too many fun things lately.  To keep themselves busy they make American Girl Doll clothes and furniture, and follow other creative pursuits, and they beg for some kind of pet (informing me that all of their misery would be resolved), and basically climb the walls the rest of the time.

Kit's bedroom

Tennie had her final Cotillion at LaCaille, a super fancy restaurant.  They had a formal dinner with dancing.  Tennie has so much fun with all of her partners that she said a few boys cut back in for her cut-loose dance moves!  The Jitterbug is her favorite.  When leaving this final event the lady in charge commented that she was a great dancer and asked if she wanted to work for her next year.  We'll see if that offer turns into something, but Tennie would love the opportunity.

Tennie and a few friends at LaCaille

The girls and I met some friends at Soldier Hollow in Midway to try out Nordic Skiing.  What a blast!  The day was perfect, and aside from some good falls and a strong learning curve, we got it down (mostly) and had a great time.

Thank goodness for beginner tracks!

The weather in Salt Lake has been so mild the past week.  Adele and Ceci and I took a walk up to the Capitol, stopping at the Old State House for a bull ride, and then heading up to the steps to see what the protesting was about.  A bunch of guys in camouflage holding up signs of fish.  Some gaming law.  I love a country where everyone has a say!

Valentine's Day kind of snuck up me this year and I never quite got around to getting out the few decorations we have.  Adele created some signs and hearts and garlands for our Valentine's breakfast of crepes, Nutella, strawberries and cream.   She also left little notes in places where she knew I would find them.

Adele and Ceci were curious what would happen if they put a few candy hearts in water...

 

Geoff and I aren't very celebratory about Valentine's Day.  We were both so exhausted from a long week that we watched a movie in bed and hit the sack early.  But our day was full of love thanks to three adoring daughters!

Food and Mood

Years ago, when living in Redmond, Washington, I went to a class called Food and Mood.  It was fascinating.  The basic idea was a study that was conducted with mentally ill patients, many of which were in mental hospitals.  The study was on foods, both which foods promoted healthy moods, and which ones decreased healthy moods.  It was controlled in a way that the foods were put in order of impact on the patient.  So drastic were the results that many patients left the mental hospitals and lived normal lives!  Here were the findings:

Potential Food Stressors (in order)

• Sugar (white, high fructose corn syrup, etc.)
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Chocolate
• Wheat-containing foods
• Additives
• Dairy
• Saturated fats

Potential Food Supporters (in order)

• Water
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Oil rich fish
• Nuts and Seeds
• 'Brown' whole-grain food
• Fiber
• Protein
• Organic Foods

 So just by decreasing sugar and increasing water one would see a mood difference.

Recently I have been praying a lot about the physical and emotional concerns of my kids and felt the idea to have them drink more water.  I had forgotten about this Food and Mood class.  So for a little motivation I set up The Great Water Challenge.

The first week whoever drank 32 oz of water got a Jamba Juice.  If they drank 32 oz of water for two weeks straight they earned a pass to an indoor water park.  And the challenge began.  And I tell you what, so did the decline of contention and whining in our home!  And so did a the decrease of a physical issue we've been trying to figure out for a year!  I couldn't believe something so simple could have such impact.  The girls saw and felt it too.  Now on week three they don't seem so motivated without a prize at the end, even after seeing the improvements in our home.  Hmmm.  I'm not giving up!

January in One Fell Swoop

Sometimes catching up when behind is so daunting I just have to post everything in one fell swoop and then the business of getting back on track is over with. So much has been going on (most of which I don't have photos for) and while I would like to give each little bit of life its due justice I'm just giving a quick overview on a few highlights.

The girls had their first piano recital.  Ceci broke out in serious giggles while playing her piece which loosened up the formality of the whole affair.

Joann, Tag & Pack came for an overnight visit.  What a treat!  Those little cousins are irresistible!

Let me insert here that the girls tried out for The Little Mermaid.  Tennie got callbacks for Ariel and Ceci for Flounder (Can you imagine how cute that duo would be?) but neither got the hoped-for parts.  Tennie ended up as a princess and Ceci as Ursala's tentacle.  Serious disappointment.  Adele was always content with her part as a featured dancer.  

Ceci tried out for two movies but didn't get the parts.

I got my hair cut short.

I'm putting in lots of hours as the stake Young Women's president.  We're doing a multi-stake youth conference this summer and I'm sort of the designated project manager over the event.  I'm pretty good at this kind of organization, but I'm not swimming in time so it is a little tricky balancing the many important things in my life.  It is also a little challenging going back into my project management, type-A personality mode when it seems as though the last five years of homeschooling have tried to squeeze those natural instincts out of me.  So I go back and forth from super efficiency to trying to herd cats (imaginative, creative and curious cats who don't share my love of structured organization and no-nonsense efficiency).  

The girls had a recital for their triple-threat class (singing, dancing, acting) at The Children's Theater

Geoff took Adele on her temple trip.  In order to make it work with his schedule Adele accompanied him to a Kiva board meeting in San Francisco before driving to Sacramento to go to the temple and squeeze in a brief visit with Geoff's parents in Auburn.

Adele is a city girl and Geoff didn't have to twist her arm too hard for this temple trip plan.  She loved exploring the city, and while Geoff was in his board meeting she shadowed the Kiva office manager helping with all of the office tasks like filling up the snacks and preparing intern kits, etc.  She felt like queen for the day.

Now that is a Dog Walker!

Adele and I worked hard at finding some family names for her to take to the temple.  Being new at geneology we had a strong learning curve, but we came up with two Danish ancestors, and we feel like we know a whole family's story.  She and Geoff had a lovely experience.

Meanwhile Tennie, Ceci and I drove to San Diego (stopping in St. George to break up the drive) and met up with Geoff and Adele who flew in.  My good friend Monica and I had our 5th Motherhood Retreat at a beach house in Coronado.  These are friends we pulled together when our babies were small and we've been meeting together every other year.  This year our theme was, "Making Our Homes a MTC (Missionary Training Center)".  With missionaries leaving at a younger age we parents are responsible to prepare them while we have them at home.  We focused on spiritual, emotional, mental, physical and social preparation.  Each session was loaded with insight and good, applicable ideas.  This group of deliberate mothers is a cherished resource during these years of mothering!

But not only did we feast on motivating discussions and meaningful side conversations, we also had amazing weather!  I didn't realize how famished my soul was for the beach and ocean!  So I took some long walks and spent as much time in the sand as I could during my brief stay.  The beach house had ten bikes so ten of us took a cruise around the island admiring the adorable homes and taking in the warm breeze and general pleasure of it all.

We're missing a few but this was our group this year

Geoff and the girls stayed in a hotel in Old Town San Diego.  They took their own bike ride around the island, and spent the day at the beach.  When we first got to Coronado, and before we went our different ways for the weekend, I saw the girls running wild and large on the beach in front of the beach house.  My poor caged girls were rolling in the sand, running with arms out wide and yelling at the top of their lungs.  It was joyful.

They found a ropes course somewhere

They picked me up and, after a quick stop in La Jolla to show the girls where Geoff proposed, we drove to LA to stay with Geoff's brother, Christian and his wife, Heather.  

The bench where Geoff (with the involvement of  all of his siblings) proposed

It was so fun visiting with them, although it wasn't nearly enough time.  Sandwiched between two nights of visiting we spent the day at Disneyland.  We thought a random Monday at the end of January might be a calm day at Disneyland.  Nope.  And a handful of the most popular rides were closed too.  Despite the crowds and closed rides we had a great day with perfect weather.  We hadn't been to Disneyland since Ceci was a baby.  This was actually her award trip for stopping sucking her thumb (about three-four years ago).

Minnie is awesome, but not as awesome as Tennie's fishnet, rainbow tights.  I love teenage expression!

Ready for The Matterhorn...

I don't know what we're doing here but it looks frightening

Making sure Adele knows how to put on the brakes...something I wasn't super swift at getting as a kid...he he  (I totaled my brothers' new go cart by forgetting which pedal was which and ramming into our brick house, and a few years later while driving a golf cart I rammed into my brother's parked golf cart (sending both of them diving out of the way) because of the same pedal confusion.  Still hearing about it whenever we're together...

It was a quick, fun-packed trip.  Now we're home and recovering and trying to get back on track after a very busy January.  

Catch up on blog.  Check.